Taming the multi-core beast!

01.11.2006

Foredragsholdere
Brian Vinter

Tid: Onsdag 1. november 2006, kl 14:15
Sted: Lille auditorium, Realfagsbygget, UiTø

Tittel: " Taming the multi-core beast! "
Foredragsholder: Professor Brian Vinter, Department of Computer Science, University of Copenhagen (DIKU)

Abstract:
In response to the ever growing transistor-count in optimal die-sizes, and the sudden halt in frequency scaling, we are now seeing a number of CPUs with multiple cores entering the arena. In this talk we will take a peek at some of these CPUs, from the simple x86 over the more advanced SPARC and PowerPC based architectures and to the very different CELL architecture.

The talk will look into how we program these multi-core beasts. Most vendors are solely focused on producing the multi-core architectures, while providing useful tools for these machines seems a low priority. We will look into how the vendors propose these machines are programmed and identify why these approaches are quite poorly suited for these architectures.

Finally we will look into how these machines may easily be programmed both efficiently and without risk of introducing the many errors we know from conventional programming. The examples will address how the gaming processors in the Xbox360 (Xenon) and Playstation-3 (CELL) may be easily programmed.